Nothing attests to humans’ instinctual love of making stuff and taking it apart more than the Lego brick. The plastic toy has been featured in films and music videos[2] and is the basis of some serious modern art[3] projects — including Jan Vormann[4]‘s ongoing “Dispatchwork” pieces in Berlin and Bocchignano, Italy. Vormann identifies damaged buildings and plugs the gaps with brightly colored Lego bricks[5].

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It’s not uncommon for passersby to feel the urge to play with Legos and join Vormann as he works, giving the project a communal aspect. But the work isn’t kids’ stuff: It takes structural know-how to “repair[7]” organic shapes with Lego blocks.

The work also gestures to World War II, when air raids created many of the buildings’ nicks and craters. Curiously, Legos — which first became popular in the late 1940s — seem to lend themselves to art about WWII, including Polish artist Zbigniew Libera’s darkly ironic Lego construction kits[8] of concentration camps.